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Again, it's hard to tell how steep things are from these photos, but
the castle is surrounded by cliffs on three sides. It's never been
taken by force. The two pictures above were taken from the same spot,
one looking downhill, the other looking up. The same is true of these
next two shots.
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| This photo gives only a hint of scale. It's looking down on a street inside the castle. The wall where you see the cannons and tourists is on the edge of a cliff. Beyond that is a park on the valley floor, and just past that is Princes Street. The body of water in the distance is the Firth of Forth. |  |
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Following our visit to the castle, we went to the Scotch Whisky Heritage Centre. Not only did we learn the history of Scotch Whisky and something about its variations, we had a wee taste, too. It may have been 11:00 on a Sunday morning, but it was for an educational purpose.
| On our way out of town, I caught one last shot of Edinburgh Castle
from the car window. It's much bigger than just this part but that's all
I could see as we zoomed down Princes Street.
Don't know who the guy on the bench is. |
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Lunch ran a little long so we had to hightail it across the country. The last ferry to Luing was at 6:00 PM and we had to hurry to catch it. With Al at the wheel, we made great time, but never once did we break the speed limit. No sir. Didn't happen.
The views were stunning but we didn't have time to stop for photos.
I took these next two pictures from the back seat of the car. They
don't begin to do justice to the beauty of Loch Lubnaig and Loch Awe.
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Likewise, Sarah is prettier than this next picture would lead you to believe, but I include it here because it perfectly captures the moment when she begins to realize that I'm taking a picture of her in the side view mirror from the back seat.
Six days out of the week, the ferry to Luing carries cars. However, this was a Sunday and the ferry is a 12 passenger, open top affair with an outboard motor. It's a short journey, however, maybe a quarter mile from dock to dock.
We were going to Luing to visit Sarah and Al's friend Cheryl. She grew up there and moved back recently and makes her living designing Celtic artwork. She met us at the dock and we all piled into her car. We went to her home in Cullipool, one of two villages on the island.
About 200 people live on Luing. It once had a population of four times that, back when the slate quarries were in operation. Now it's mostly fishermen and craftsmen.
Cheryl made us a great chili supper, with salad picked from her garden that day. She also introduced us to several of the different types of whisky we had heard about at the museum that morning. Danusia, who didn't like whisky earlier in the day, fell in love with Laphroaig, the most smoky, peaty and harsh of them all. My favorite was Bunnahabhain which is less peaty but still has a bite to it. Anyway, we talked late into the night solving most of the world's problems.
Next: June 12, 2000
| Florida to London: Danusia's side trip | ||
| London to Edinburgh: Grey Mare's Tail | ||
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June 11, 2000
|
Edinburgh to Luing: Edinburgh Castle, the ferry to Luing | |
| Luing to Aviemore: Hill climbing, grey weather | ||
| Aviemore to Foyers: Glenfiddich distillery, Loch Ness, Falls of Foyers | ||
| Foyers to Glen Sheil: More of Loch Ness and Falls of Foyers, Urquhart Castle, Glen Sheil | ||
| Glen Sheil to Stornoway: Eilean Donan Castle, ferry from Uig to Tarbert | ||
| Stornoway, Luskentyre and Tarbert | ||
| Callanish | ||
| Dail Mor | ||
| Ceilidh on the lawn | ||
| Stornoway to Inverness: A quick good-bye, foggy ferry ride, bus to Inverness | ||
| Inverness to London: Hot Hamlet, Floridians get sunburned |
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